Rhode Island’s new governor has killed crucial measures to crack down on illegal immigration for the sake of statewide economic growth and prosperity in “immigrant-rich areas.”Just a few days on the job, Democrat Lincoln Chafee wasted no time issuing executive orders to accommodate illegal aliens, assuring that “Rhode Island can grow economically by being a tolerant place to do business.” He also took action so that “immigrant-rich areas” could prosper throughout the state, which has an estimated 40,000 illegal aliens mingled in its population of a little over 1 million.With a scribble on a paper Chafee rescinded a 2008 law requiring public agencies and vendors that do business with the state to use a federal database—known as E-Verify—to check the legal status of their workers. The governor also ordered Rhode Island State Police to stop participating in a federal program that allows officers to enforce immigration laws. The executive order calls the laws agents of“divisiveness, incivility and distrust among the state’s citizens.”It’s simply part of the governor’s mission to create civil state with a “vibrant, diverse community that is free of political, cultural and ethnic division.” During hisinauguration speech Chaffee vowed to implement an era of “cultural and ethnic acceptance” that will bring the state immediate prosperity. He took the opportunity to also say that his predecessor’s efforts to crack down on illegal immigration caused “needless anxiety within our Latino community.”The immigration laws were implemented to soften the huge financial toll that illegal aliens are having on Rhode Island taxpayers amid federal inaction. The Republican governor (Donald Carcieri) who enacted the measures said he was forced to because the flow of illegal immigrants had become “epidemic” and state taxpayers were getting stuck with the enormous tab.There were also serious concerns of escalating violence by illegal immigrants with criminal histories. The same year the immigration control laws were enacted, an illegal alien with an extensive criminal record kidnapped and raped a woman inProvidence, despite his repeated encounters with local law enforcement officers for driving drunk and domestic assault. Had local authorities contacted federal immigration officials, the Guatemalan man would have been deported long ago.